Yep it’s more or less the same situation.

I have been experimenting a ton with picks in the last few months. I bought three Bluechips, an assorted pack of TUSQ picks, and Taylor’s “Darktone series” pick tin.

My favorites are, in order:

0. Dunlop Tortex. Old reliable. Just feels like home.

1. TUSQ picks. They are the most resonant picks I have ever used; they make month old strings sound like a fresh set. They also come in three different sound profiles, bass-heavy, treble heavy, and “warm” i.e. mids heavy. The differences are noticeable, and it feels like having an analog way to EQ my guitar. For the money they are the best

2. Taylor Thermex Pro from the Darktone series pick tin. It is the pick that gets closest to the sound of a fingernail

3. Bluechip - fancy but kinda underwhelming. They are definitely great picks but I’m not feeling the hype after using them for three months

I live in Asia, specifically Pakistan, and ADHD meds are not easy to come by here. I live in the biggest city and only know two stores which sell locally manufactured methylphenidate (aka Ritalin).

Generally, if you keep a low profile, you’re fine. It’s not like the average person will try to fight you if they find out you’re an atheist. It is extremely taboo, though. In my case, most of my friends are left-wing activists and/or artists, so it is not a problem for me socially, but I think I am an outlier in that respect. I do hide it at the office though (or at least I did when I was going to one), and from my extended family, and of course from strangers.

It is absolutely not something you can be public about. If somehow, you become publicly visible and recognized as an atheist, it is best that you flee the country lest you end up in the same situation as the girl in the OP.

I wouldn’t say majority of the country is batshit crazy, it is just held hostage by an archaic religion that is extremely violent towards blasphemers.

You might say, that is not much of a difference, but imo it is a meaningful difference because most muslims disagree or refuse to act on this belief (as evidenced by the police and shopkeepers who protected the girl), they just can’t do anything to change that it is part of orthodox Islam. So the hardliners win on this one, every time.

Only way to fix it is to secularize the state, which will either take a revolution or a lot of fucking time. Definitely not happening in my lifetime.

It is a complicated question.

Capital punishment for blasphemy is a mainstream theological position in Islam, accepted by the 4 major Sunni schools of thought. I do not know of any Shia tradition that goes against this position either. The only exception in my knowledge is one Sunni tradition, the Hanafi school, that prohibits the killing of non-muslims specifically for the crime of blasphemy, that too only if they are not habitual offenders. So, e.g. satirists like Charlie Hebdo would still face capital punishment, and of course any Muslim that commits blasphemy (e.g. ex-muslim atheists like me).

According to this Pew Poll, 84% of Pakistanis favor Islamic Sharia becoming the law of the land. This matches my personal experience. I know very few Muslims who think of Sharia as an unjust legal system.

I know many people who privately disagree with the idea of a death penalty for blasphemy. However, when you live in a country that is an “Islamic republic”, Islamic jurisprudence as a big influence on the legal system, and with Islam in general having a hegemony over public morality, your private disagreement does not matter and has no political power. Basically, the whole country is held hostage by Islam. And every Pakistani knows that capital punishment for blasphemy is the mainstream position. Every single Pakistani knows that being perceived as committing blasphemy, or even publicly disagreeing with the blasphemy law puts you in danger.

In 2011, one of our sitting governors was assassinated by his own security guard for allegedly committing blasphemy. His killer, Mumtaz Qadri, became a hero for the religious right overnight and the killer’s funeral (he was executed by the state for vigilante assassinating the governor; despite the blasphemy law, only the State has the right to execute convicted blasphemers) was attended by thousands of devotees. His grave has turned into a shrine.

The Tehreek-e-Labbaik party, a far-right Islamist party whose primary raison d’être is defending Islam from blasphemers has held protests large enough to paralyse the whole country and enjoyed significant electoral success in 2018.

So, no, it is not a law that is imposed by a tyrannical minority. It is a law imposed by the majoritarian hegemony of one religion.

And in my opinion, and subjective experience, this holds true for not just Pakistan but most muslim-majority countries. I would feel just as unsafe as an atheist in any muslim-majority country as I currently do in Pakistan.

True but it also suggested that democracy cannot work in these countries at all.

how democracy could work in countries like that? You will always descend to things like Modi

To which I replied that it is not trying to institute democracy that causes this, but rather supporting dictatorships and anti-democratic actors, which is what western powers have been doing.

But good to know there is little we disagree about on this topic besides phrasing and perhaps our degree of optimism about the democratic process, or lack thereof.

Unfortunately, we also have a law that requires capital punishment for anyone found guilty of blasphemy. The mob and the state are on the same page in this respect.

I guess my disagreement is that Western countries are in no position to give these tools because they have not undergone that process themselves. The master’s tools will not dismantle the master’s house, etc

Yeah, but this is equally a problem in European and North American countries, too. So they are in no position to “educate” our populations on how to do democracy. They just need to stop supporting anti-democratic forces and engage with our countries based on their professed democratic principles rather than geopolitical interests.